Pages

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Cluster Stitch Scarf and Accompanying Hat

Every year, I enter items in the Home Arts Building at the Howard County Fair. This year, I had made the Cluster Stitch Hat (see the comments below for a current url for the hat pattern), but in order to enter it in the fair, I needed an accompanying scarf. So I decided to make my own pattern. It worked out pretty well considering it won first in Scarf and Hat Set, Adult Crochet. It will be at the Maryland State Fair in a week. (Update: Neither the hat nor the scarf placed at the MD State Fair. There was a lot of competition.)

Scarf Pattern:

Materials:

3 skeins of worsted yarn (about 510 yds)

Large-eye blunt needle to weave in ends

I hook (I know the hat pattern calls for a J hook. For some reason, I used an I hook for the hat and the scarf. Feel free to use the J hook, and in fact I recommend it for the hat at any rate, since I can barely get mine over my head. Just keep in mind that a J hook will make the scarf a little wider.)

Important Note: For CS on all rows after the first row using CS, instead of inserting the hook in the next slip st, insert the hook from front to back and back out to front around the CS of the previous row. Treat these CS as if they are post stitches around the previous row's CS.

1. Ch 21.

2. Sc in second ch from hook. Sc across. Turn. Do not ch 1.

3. Sl st across in each sc. Ch 1. Turn.

4. Sc in the two loops facing front (i.e. the loops of the sc sts) across.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 two more times.

6. Repeat step 3, but end with ch 2.

7. Going through the two loops facing front, dc 1 in first st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, dc 1 in next 6 sts, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, dc 1 in next two sts. Do not ch. Turn. Sl st across in the top of each st and around each ch st. Ch 2. Turn.

8. Repeat step 7 twice, but use 6 hdc sts instead of the 6 dc sts in the middle. Follow the pattern of using dc in one row followed by two rows using hdc. This prevents the middle section from bulging and keeps it more even with the rest of the row. Continue until scarf is 1" from desired length. Ch 1 instead of 2 in last row.

9. Sc 20 st evenly across. Do not ch. Turn.

10. Repeat step 3 and 4 three times. Do not ch 1 in last row. Finish off. (Note: you could do one more row of step 3 before finishing off. I didn't, but now that I look at my scarf, I think it would look better with one more row of step 3.)

If there are problems with this pattern, please comment and I will try to fix it.

Leisure Arts recently redid their website and you now apparently have purchase the hat pattern. It can be found at: http://www.leisurearts.com/crochet/cluster-stitch-cloche-crochet-pattern.html . It is a bit of a shame that it is not free anymore.